

CARDS: Topps AAF 2019 Certified, Panini Playbook 2011 Doak, Topps AAF NOW 2019 X3, Topps AAF 2019, Panini Prestige 2015
ACQUIRED: EBay 2019, Paid Signing 2024
FAILURE: TTM 2019, C/o The Birmingham Iron
NOTES:
Going off topic on this one today.
Trent was considered the crown jewel of the Alliance of American Football. League executives had already tossed around the idea that once the league took off and found its foothold that there’d be a place at the table for Trent once he retired to become a brand ambassador of sorts.
Initially his certified autograph was hard to come by, but eventually I was able to get a reasonably priced version of the autograph. His Panini Playbook card was another matter.
At the beginning of COVID, way, way back in 2020 initially there was panic about a nationwide shutdown. Nobody was on EBay, and I was able to snag quite a few really nice autographs of players that were just hanging out there, including this fun little Panini Playbook of Trent.
How patient am I? Way, way back in March of 2024, I committed to a paid signing quickly after I had missed out on the only other previous one I’d seen for Trent. I piled in all my set needs and rareties knowing this was the best way to get him, because he’s a zero signer TTM. Then I waited. The deadline for the signing got moved- then passed. I started to worry.
I contacted the promoter, (who I choose not to identify) and he patiently kept me up to date as to what was going on. Delay after delay. It got to a point where Richardson was saying, “I’ll get it out to you this weekend dawg.” Eventually days turned into weeks, into months… and finally, in December of 2024, the promoter, sensing his good name was being besmirched by Trent’s lack of follow through, hit Richardson with a legal letter.
This jostled Richardson into admitting there were some things going on around his house that was making it difficult for him to get back to get these things signed and into the mail, as he had promised. I quickly quipped to the promoter that I’d be surprised if Trent got the autographs back to him before March 2025.
Then in April of ’25, the promoter offered a full refund on Richardson. He still held out hope that Trent would return the items. In the meantime, all my precious rare Topps AAF Now cards have sat in limbo.